How to Lose an Argument

There's some common wisdom on Usenet which goes like this:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1. Once such a comparison is made, the thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress.

Well, if that's the case, I've lost this argument before I started it.

I was watching a documentary on ABC TV about Iran, and they were showing thousands of Iranians in a mosque or shrine. This was the day after the "Koran Flushing" allegations, which turned out to be false. These thousands of Iranians were shouting "Death to America!".

You know what it reminded me of? One of Hitler's parades.

It doesn't help that the President of Iran recently vowed to kill all the Jews (and America while he was at it).

Now, I have a little rule I live by, which goes something like this:

Never declare war on, or make public your intent to eradicate, someone who owns enough nuclear weapons to turn your country into rubble, then turn the rubble into dust, then turn the dust into glass, then break the glass, then bounce the pieces around for a while, and still retain most of their weapons.

Apparently the President of Iran hasn't heard my little rule. He also must not know what happened to Hitler.

I'm afraid of what's going to happen. I'm afraid Iran is going to go crazy and we're going to have WWII all over again, except this time with suicide bombers and nuclear threats and it's going to be horrible. Note to Iran: please save yourself destruction, get off your high horse, and learn to live in the 21st century.